10

days that changed the climate debate in Australia by connec6ng the dots
David Spra* October 2013
Version.03

Tuesday 15 October: Greens Deputy leader Adam Bandt on SkyTV 900 more Australians will die from heat every year unless we get global warming under control. Unless we tackle climate change, we are going to see a Black Saturday bushre up to every two years in Victoria and a doubling of the kind of re days NSW is seeing at the moment. Faced with the biggest ever threat to Australias way of life, Tony Abbo* is failing in the rst duty of a prime minister which is to protect the Australian people. In fact, Tony Abbo* is a climate criminal. I hope that the Labor facQonal henchman won't aid and abet him by voQng to repeal this country's clean energy laws. This is about protec6ng the Australian way of life, making sure that when you go camping at the end of the year over the Christmas holidays you don't have to worry about bushres wherever you go. Power prices quesQon: What would you rather: that big polluters pay for their polluQon, it goes a li*le bit on the energy bill and you get some compensaQon for it, and perhaps you have to pay a bit more each year, or Black Saturday bushres every two years? This is about protecQng the Australian way of life. Connec6ng the dots

Wednesday 16 October 2013 Failing to protect his people ProtecQng the Australian way of life Taking Australia backwards (not forwards)

Adam Bandt, Guardian, Wednesday 16 October 2013: Abbo* is failing in what Ronald Reagan reportedly described as a governments rst duty: to protect its people. Global warming poses the biggest ever threat to Australians and the Australian way of life, but he is siding with the enemy Global warming is already damaging the health and the way of life of ordinary Australians and unless we act those threats will become catastrophic. CSIRO predicts that under extreme climate change, the kind of bushres we saw in Victoria on Black Saturday may happen on average once every two years climate change is drying the (SW WA) region, threatening WAs agriculture and biodiversity. The Climate Commission also warns of impacts on our sh stocks as the ocean absorbs CO2 and acidies. The IPCC suggest(s) 9,000 more Australians will die every year from extreme heat unless we get global warming under control Sadly, the coaliQon shows no interest in ensuring that Australians on summer holiday will have less frequent bushres, healthy oceans to sh in or thousands fewer deaths. Donning a volunteer reghter uniform for the media is a con if youre also helping start res that put peoples lives in danger. If our prime minister truly wants to protect the Australian people, he must help fend o dangerous global warming, the countrys biggest ever threat.

Connec6ng the dots

Thursday 17 October 2013: The tweet that became the story

Connec6ng the dots

Friday 18 October 2013: Conserva6ve media drive the story for another day

Friday 18 October 2013: Bandt repeats his message on na6onal TV, TwiSer takes o

Chris6ne Milne @senatormilne IPCC says more res, ho*est winter leads to horric early NSW res, Abbo* boasts dumping climate acQon, Qme to face naQon. #auspol

Friday 18 October 2013: and the taboo is broken Adam Bandt, ABC News 24, Friday 18 October Tony Abbo* and his ministers (are) going to take Australia backwards when it comes to combaQng global warming. Global warming is the biggest threat to Australian life I don't want every summer, let alone every spring, for us to be worrying about whether we are going to see these kind of bushres again, to have to worry about threats to people's property and threats to people's safety. "I know it's uncomfortable to have a discussion about it, but I think it's our job as poliQcians. "I think given that Parliament's about to resume shortly and global warming is on the agenda for debate, we should be talking about how we as poli6cians can do everything we can to protect the Australian way of life."

Friday 18 October 2013

Saturday 19 October 2013: The dam wall breaks

Saturday 19 October 2013: The dam wall breaks

Sunday 20 October 2013

Victorian Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said the dry air coming out of Central Australia would be an issue this summer. "Some may say it's part of climate change, it probably is, the fact we're seeing a dierent climaQc condiQon coming across to aect the south-eastern side of Australia, (is) really important for us to understand this summer,'' he told ABC radio.
h*p://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/barry-o8217farrell-and-rfs-boss-say-possibly-worse-to-come-in-bushre- catastrophe-as-crews-conQnue-to-ba*le-on-numerous-fronts/story-fni0cx12-1226742089017

Ma* Goldings Fairfax cartoon

Monday 21 October 2013 NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons Fires now a whole new ball game and in a league of their own says RFS commissioner. He says re crews are dealing with "unparalleled condiQons" . NSW Premier Barry OFarrell When asked on Monday if climate change made disastrous events like the NSW res more likely, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell replied: ''Well, clearly, I think that's the science.
h*p://www.smh.com.au/federal-poliQcs/poliQcal-news/clear-link-between- climate-change-and-bushres-un-adviser-warns-tony- abbo*-20131022-2vxs5.html

Former NSW Rural Fire Services Commissioner, Phil Koperberg "This is a feature of slowly evolving climate. We have always had res, but not of this nature, and not at this Qme of year, and not accompanied by the record- breaking heat we've had. Guardian 21 October 2013 Connec6ng the dots

Monday 21 October 2013

Adam Bandt was rebuked for menQoning the elephant in the room but policymakers can no longer credibly look away if there is credible reason to believe that human-induced climate change is increasing the likelihood or frequency of these re disasters, those same poli6cians have a duty to understand that risk and explain how they are doing everything possible to contribute to global eorts to address it.

With claims that current climate policies would lead to more bushres, Deputy Greens Leader Adam Bandt was accused of poliQcising the a natural disaster, but scien6sts say the link between global warming and res is established and demands ac6on.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

What is absolutely clear is the science is telling us that there are increasing heatwaves in Asia, Europe, and Australia; that these will conQnue; that they will conQnue in their intensity and in their frequency. ''Climate change is known to alter the likelihood of increased wildre sizes and frequencies. Combined with more stress on trees ''this suggests an increasing likelihood of more prevalent re disturbances, as has recently been observed.

Age editorial: Mr Bandt has a valid point. Rather than poliQcising on his own behalf, his criQcisms draw necessary a*enQon to the Abbo* government's own poliQcising: the swim fullment of its elecQon promises to downgrade the prominence of science in general and the eects of climate change in parQcular.

Wednesday 23 October 2013 Prime Minister Tony AbboS breaks his silence a_er six days Prime Minister Tony Abbo* has dismissed the comments of a senior UN ocial who said there was a clear link between bushres and climate change, arguing ''re is a part of the Australian experience''. He rejected Ms Figueres' assessment that a clear link existed between bushres and climate change, saying she was Talking through her hat.

Al Gore on ABC 7.30 Report It reminds me of poliQcians here in the United States who got a lot of support from the tobacco companies and who argued to the public that there was absolutely no connecQon between smoking cigare*es and lung cancer the science shows clearly that when the temperature goes up and when the vegetaQon and soils dry out, then wildres become more pervasive and more dangerous. That's not me saying it, that's what the scienQc community says.

Thursday 24 October 2013

Mr Hunt said he ''looked up what Wikipedia'' said about bushres. Environment Minister replied that she (BBC interviewer) was taking a private conversaQon out of context. He later added that the Coali6on had taken ''science o the table'' when it came to climate change. ''We're not deba6ng it,'' he said.

Government does not want to debate climate science and impacts, because: Every Qme they open their mouths, they sound like denialists. Their posiQon is not credible. It helps connect the dots. Climate advocacy strategy: Press public discussion on climate science and impacts at every opportunity. Connect the dots. Call the government out for climate denialism and failing to protect the Australian way of life.

Government is desperate to keep bushres and climate change apart because they cant win if people

John Howard on how extreme events, connec6ng the dots and leadership changed the climate debate

connect the dots!

Thursday 24 October 2013

As Howard wrote in his autobiography Lazarus Rising, in the space of several weeks, commencing in October 2006, four separate events came together to push the climate change concerns of the Australian community to higher levels than ever before. In Victoria the bushre season started early; the drought aecQng large areas of eastern Australia lingered on from outside Australia came the contribuQons of Al Gore and Sir Nicholas Stern. These four events coincided and drama6cally increased the focus on global warming in Australia I concluded that the government would need to shi_ its posi6on on climate change.

Summing up
Climate change is a choice between increasing harm, or acQng to restore safety. Government is desperate for people not to connect the dots, to not talk about climate change impacts and science. The story should be about people in Australia and not distant places, about now and not just the distant future, about connecQng the dots between extreme events and global warming. It is a story about record heat and bush res, about how family and friends will live in a ho*er and more extreme world, about how a retreaQng coastline will aect where we live and work, a story about health and well-being, about increasing food and water insecurity, and the more dicult life that children and grandchildren will face. Informed discussion on climate change impacts can turn the table on denialist prime minister At some point in the future, every (climate) record will be broken, but that doesn't prove anything about climate change Prime Minister Tony AbboS, Herald Sun, 25 October 2013